Frank Seravalli

Daily News Staff Writer

Jeff Carter has agreed to an 11-year contract extension with the Flyers worth $58 million.

The salary cap hit would be $5.27 million starting next season (his cap hit this season is $5 million). Carter could have become a restricted free agent July 1. The contract included a limited no-trade clause, although general manager Paul Holmgren would not specify when.

"He’s a committed player to the Flyers. A committed two-way player for the Flyers," Holmgren said before tonight's game. "You need guys that can score and Jeff has a knack to score and I look forward to seeing him score lots of goals over the next number of years.”

The contract was first reported by Canadian sports network, TSN.

The deal is the second-longest in franchise history next to the 12-year deal that captain Mike Richards signed and would likely keep both Carter and Richards as Flyers for the length of their careers.

"We’re happy to have Jeff signed for the foreseeable future," Holmgren said. "He’s an integral part of the core of our hockey team. This took a little bit of time to get done, but we’re happy to have it done.”

Holmgren said negotiations first began in the summer, but the deal took time to complete.

"Something always came up," Holmgren said. "It was never hostile at any point, it just took time to get done. I think some other issues in the league made us think about different ways of doing this, thinking about different ways - number of years, stuff like that, just custodial stuff. We finally came to an agreement late last night.”

Carter, 24, has eight goals and six assists in 16 games this season. He has 153 goals and 138 assists in 397 career regular-season games.

"I think it really says something about him as a player for this organization and what he has done," coach Peter Laviolette said. "Jeff has put up a lot of points. He's young and talented. He's a big guy that plays center ice for us. I always say you have to be strong down the middle and he certainly is that for us. It is a great deal for him, our organization and our fans. It seems to be a good fit."